There is a proposal for the creation of public
open space by what we would now call 'planning gain'

J C Loudon's 'Hints on
Breathing Places for the Metropolis, and for Country Towns and Villages, on fixed Principles'
1829

A LATE attempt
in parliament to enclose Hampstead Heath has called our attention to the
rapid extension of buildings on every side of London, and to the duty,
as we think, of government to devise some plan by which the
metropolis may be enlarged so as to cover anywith perfect safety to the
inhabitants, in respect to the supply of provisions, water, and fresh
air, and to the removal of filth of every description, the maintenance
of general cleanliness, and the despatch of business. Our plan is very
simple; that of surrounding London, as it already exists, with a zone of
open country, at the distance of say one mile, or one mile and a half,
from what may be considered the centre, say from St. Paul’s. (fig.) This zone of country may be half a mile broad, and may contain, as
the figure shows, part of Hyde Park, the Regent’s Park, Islington,
Bethnal Green, the Commercial Docks, Camberwell, Lambeth, and Pimlico;
and it maybe succeeded by a zone of town one mile broad, containing
Kensington, Bayswater, Paddington, Kentish Town, Clapton, Lime
House, Deptford, Clapham, and Chelsea; and thus the metropolis may be
extended in alternate mile zones of buildings, with half mile zones of
country or gardens, till one of the zones touched the
sea. To render the
plan complete, it would be necessary to have a circle of turf and gravel
in the centre of the city, around St. Paul’s, half a mile in diameter.
In this circle ought to be situated all the government offices, and
central depots connected with the administration of the affairs
of the metropolis. That being accomplished,
whatever might eventually become the extent of London, or of any large
town laid oat on the same plan and in the same proportions, there could
never be an inhabitant who would be farther than half a mile from an
open airy situation, in which he was free to walk or ride, and in which
he could find every mode of amusement, recreation, entertainment, and
instruction.

Supposing such a plan considered desirable, it could not be carried into
execution in such a metropolis as London, unless in consequence of accident or
revolution, in less time than one or two centuries; because it could never be
recommended to purchase and pull down so many valuable houses as would be
requisite to form the central circle of country, and the first zone of
country. But were government to determine the boundaries of certain future
zones, and to enact a law that no buildings now standing
on the future zones of country should be repaired after a certain year, and
that when such houses were no longer habitable, the owners should be
indemnified for them by the transfer of other houses of equal yearly value
in another part of the metropolis, belonging to
government, the transition, considering the great increase that will take
place in the size of London during two centuries, and the alteration in the
relative value of property in consequence of the Law respecting zones, would
not be felt as the slightest injustice or inconvenience. Government would be
justified in adopting a plan of this sort, from its obvious reference to the
public welfare; and a committee being appointed to carry the law into
execution would begin by purchasing such lands as were to be sold in the
outskirts of the metropolis, in order to be able, at a future period, to
exchange them for lands destined to form the central circle of the first zone.

In endeavouring to give an idea of the situations of the zones round London
(fig.), we have drawn the boundary
lines as perfect circles; but in the
execution of the project this is by no means necessary, nor even desirable.
The surface of the ground, the direction of streets already existing, which it
would not be worth while to alter, the accidental situations of public
buildings, squares, and private gardens, with other circumstances, would
indicate an irregular line, which line would at the same time be much more
beautiful as well as economical.

Supposing a town to be founded on this principle, a capital for an Ausrtralian
union for example; then we should propose to place all the government public
buildings round the central circle, in one range (a b c),
with the house of representatives in the centre; and
between it and the government buildings as many markets, churches, and
play-houses as might be deemed necessary for the inner half mile of the inner
zone of town. In the first and succeeding zones of country we would place the
slaughtering-houses (d e), markets,
churches, burial grounds, theatres, universities, parochial institutions,
workhouse gardens, botanical and zoological gardens, public picture and statue
galleries, national museums, public conservatories and tea-gardens,
gasometers, public water-works, baths and swimming
ponds, sewer works, and all public buildings and places whatever not connected
with the national or municipal government, and therefore belonging to the
circle in the centre. The zones of town we would confine as much as possible
to private dwellings, not admitting squares, burial-grounds, market-places, or
any naked space, save good broad streets; because we think the closeness
together of the buildings containing fires, or otherwise heated by art, would
materially aid ventilation, by producing a greater rarefaction of air over
them, and the advantage for business and visiting would be greater. In the
zones of country we would contrive to have the hay, corn, straw, and cattle
markets not far apart; and we would limit certain of the streets which proceed
from the centre to the circumference, and certain also of the others which run
parallel to the zones, exclusively to the supply of these markets from the
distant country, and to the transfer of articles from one market to another.

All the streets of such a city we would limit to two kinds; radiating main
streets communicating in direct lines from the centre to the circumference (d
c), and concentric main streets for lateral
communication (ff). Every
alternate grand radiating street (d e g),
and concentric street (d d d h), should
be those alone by which cattle, hay, fuel, and similar bulky articles were
brought to the markets, or conveyed from one market to another. In the
radiating and concentric streets, alternating with these, the mails might be
understood to depart; and in all the main streets, radiating and concentric,
public conveyances, like the omnibuses in Paris, propelled by steam or
otherwise, according to the improvements of the age and country, parcel.
carriers, letter carriers, &c., might be established for ready and
economical intercommunication. Every man might thus ride from any one point in
the metropolis to any other point
without loss of time, and at very little expense. For instance, A living in
the central circle, wishes to call on B in the second zone of town; then, by
the radiating coach which passes nearest B ‘s house, he will be set down
where the radiating street crosses the con- centric Street in which B lives;
and when one of the concentric Street coaches belonging to B ‘s street
passes, A will step into it and be set down at B ‘s door. Supposing steam
carriages running on railroads to be established in every street, or even in
all the main streets, this might be done with inconceivable rapidity.

It is evident that every description of goods and provisions being brought in
by the radiating market roads, might be distributed by the concentric
market-roads, on public conveyances, and by the ordinary concentric roads on
private conveyances, with as great ease as in the case of personal intercourse. Letters and books, also, could be so distributed with great facility and
rapidity. Under every street we would have a sewer
sufficiently large, and so contrived as to serve at the same time as a subway
for the mains of water and gas, and we would keep it in view that hot water,
hot oil, steam, or hot air, may in time be circulated by public companies for
heating houses; and gas supplied not only for the purposes of lighting, but
for those of cookery, and some for manufactures The matters conveyed by the
sewer we would not allow to be all wasted in a river; but here and there, in
what we would call sewer works,
to be placed in the country zones, we would strain
the water by means of machinery, so as to gain from it almost every particle
of manure held in mixture. This manure being dry from compression might be
conveyed to any distance without smell or other inconvenience. The water,
freed from its grosser impurities, might be raised to towers, and, by the
pressure of the atmosphere, forced through pipes to tracts of country beyond
the outer zone, for the purposes of irrigation.

In the country zones we should permit individuals, on proper conditions of
rent and regulations, to establish all manner of rural coffee-houses, and
every description of harmless amusement; and the space not occupied by these
establishments, and by the public buildings before mentioned, we would lay out
as park and pleasure-ground scenery, and introduce in it all the plants,
trees, and shrubs which would grow in the open air, with innumerable seats,
covered and uncovered, in the sun and in the shade. We would also introduce
pieces of water, under certain circumstances (especially if there were no
danger of it producing malaria), rocks, quarries, stones, wild places in
imitation of heaths and caverns, grottoes, dells, dingles, ravines, hills,
valleys, and other natural-looking scenes, with walks and roads, straight and
winding, shady and open; and, to complete the whole, there should be certain
bands of music to perambulate the zones, so as at certain hours to be at
certain places every day in the year.

Though we have not the slightest idea that this beau ideal of
a capital for an Australian or a European union will ever be carried into
execution; and though we would rather see, in every country, innumerable small
towns and villages, than a few overgrown capitals; yet we think, that, as
there must probably always be some grand central cities in the world, some
useful principles for regulating the manner in which each is increased may be
deduced from the foregoing hints. The principle of having all the public or
government buildings in the centre will apply in all cases, and so will
that of radiating and concentric roads. Wherever a
country town is likely to extend beyond a diameter of half a mile, we think a
zone of breathing ground should be marked out as not to be built on, for the
sake of the health of the poorer part of the inhabitants. In cases where towns
and villages stretch along rivers, in very narrow vales, on the ridges
of hills, or in narrow stripes along the sea coast, these zones become
unnecessary, because the surface of the land is supposed to be open on one or
on both sides; but in by far the greater number of cases which are continually
occurring in every country, the principle of concentric zones or breathing
places will be found to present advantages which no other form or disposition
of breathing places could produce. In country towns or large villages, where
the greater number of the inhabitants cannot be supposed to keep horses or to
support steam hackney coaches, or street conveyances of any kind, the first
zone or breathing place ought not to be farther from the centre than a quarter
of a mile, and the exterior zones of building should not be of greater width
than half a mile, in order that the inhabitants may never have more than a
quarter of a mile to walk. It is much to be regretted, we think, that in the
numerous enclosure acts which have been passed during the last fifty years,
provision was not made for a public green, playground, or garden, for every
village in the parishes in which such enclosures took place. We hope the
subject will be kept in view in future enclosure bills; and we hope, also,
that the legislature may not think it unworthy of their attention to take into
consideration the subject of breathing places, on some systematic plan,
calculated for the benefit of all ranks in all parts of the British metropolis.

Note John Claudius Loudon did not invent the term 'landscape
architecture' but he gave it currency 30 years before Olmsted. The term
was first used by Gilbert Laing Meason in 1828 in his book on the great
painters of Italy.